Amundsen

In Florence, Italy, in a chamber of the
Villa Palmieri, where Boccaccio is supposed to have spun out his
ingenious Decameron, an old gentleman lay very sick abed. Seventy-five
years were on his back. On his chest there was bronchial pneumonia.
On his heart, heavier than years or sickness, there was black despair.

Leagues and leagues from Florence, far into the icy fastnesses of the
North Pole, the old gentleman's son, Lincoln Ellsworth, had flown with
Explorer Roald Amundsen of Norway a fortnight before (TIME, June 1)....